Get Published Weekly Roundup: September 25, 2017

While the whole country has been profoundly affected by the events that occurred here in Charlottesville several weeks ago, this weekend a group of musicians brought people here in town together for a fantastic series of performances, in order to promote healing and community. And an unannounced Stevie Wonder showed up at the end! Thank you, Stevie (everybody else, too, but c'mon, it's Stevie)!

In this week's GSF Roundup we highlight agent news, notices of approaching writing and submission deadlines, some Manuscript Wishlist Tweets, and a bit of this and that at the end.

We'd love to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think in the comments and if there are certain types of information you would like to see in the Roundup. Also feel free to tweet at us (@freelancingrads) with any ideas or questions. Have a great writing week!

"Anything with a wickedly dark sense of humor. She’s especially drawn to multicultural fiction as well as lgbtq+ works. She is keen to work on projects that focus on marginalized people and people from atypical walks of life. She loves a story that makes her think differently."

Ann Leslie Tuttle, former editor at Harlequin, joined Dystel, Goderich & Bourret as an Agent

Nonfiction: Isn't European History kind of a Romance? On the real, though, no. No Nonfiction.

"At the heart of every good romance is the sense of finding family, that identity and connection that gives purpose, hope and love to someone’s life. To me, the best romances have well developed protagonists who’ve truly been to hell and back and now must overcome their greatest fear, which usually involves an issue of trust or willingness to put their heart on the line again after a gut-wrenching loss."

Submission Deadlines

Writers, you've got about a week:

The University of Iowa Press The Iowa Short Fiction Award & John Simmons Short Fiction Award (yes, that Iowa)—Submissions must be postmarked by Saturday, September 30th (Short Story Contest—Publication)

Who: Writers who have not published a volume of prose fiction

What: 150+ page collection of short stories. Publication under their standard contract

"We love writing with a strong sense of narrative and invite you to tell us a true story, be in based in the real or fictional world. We believe that a story about dragons can be just as true as a piece of memoir, and are less concerned with traditional genre definitions than we are with resonant, evocative writing."

What: Any book of original poetry published in the past year, in English or translation. Winner receives $1,000.

"The Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry is named for poet, publisher, editor, businesswoman, and philanthropist, Glenna Luschei, who has also endowed in perpetuity the literary quarterly Prairie Schooner. Her generous contribution established this annual award. In recognition of their invaluable support of our work, Glenna Luschei has welcomed the use of her name for the Prize for African Poetry."

To Submit: Download the entry form, then mail entries to The Glenna Luschei Poetry Prize: The African Poetry Book Fund/Prairie Schooner,110 Andrews Hall, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0334. (Shout out Andrews Hall, y'all!) For more information and rules, click here.

What Agents Want

Looking for friendship, love, and revolution. Not necessarily in that order.

Ejusdem Generis

Speaking of the Iowa Writers Workshop, here's an interview with author John McNally from 2011, shortly after he published his novel, After the Workshop. He speaks about his experiences at the Workshop, his feelings about living as a writer and academic, and his take on the ins and outs of getting a book published. It's both depressing and encouraging. Check it out.

While it comes from roughly eight months ago, John Irving's (one of Iowa's most famous alumni) call for Oscar winners to become more overtly political in their acceptance speeches seems pretty germane to this week. The Hollywood Reporterhas his essay. I really liked A Prayer for Owen Meany. If I could have written any book, that would be one of my top ten choices.

Finally, the pacifism of John Wheelwright in A Prayer for Owen Meany made me think about war and its effects on literature. Atlas Obscura describes the rise of the paperback as the result of a nation at war (I mean, yeah, I agree, generally it's good for nothing, but paperbacks are pretty great). The dimensions of the books were determined by the size of the presses - they were intended for magazines, and so the printers had to print two books at a time, and cut the pages in half. How cool is that? Definitely check it out.

Grad Student Freelancers (GSF) is dedicated to helping authors take care of the details of the publication process. Part of the process includes sifting through huge amounts of information to find important news, events, and tips that can give you an edge in the publication process. Every week GSF will provide three lists of curated information focused on helping writers get published. Our goal is to gather what's important from the web in the past week, so you can focus more on your writing.

Archives

Archives

Kelly was indispensable in her organization and attention to detail with my book project for the University of Chicago. She had a large amount of material to review and manage, lots of sources to research and cite, and was able to tackle it all while needing very little guidance from me. Beyond that, she also compiled chapter abstracts and keywords, and went back through my work multiple times as changes were made. She was invaluable.

Jane Friedman, publishing consultant and former publisher of Writer's Digest

Kelly's tenacity in tracking down rights holders was exceptional. I'm convinced she is actually a detective.Glenn Kammen, Author

Christopher was exactly what I was looking for. He is a great biblical scholar of historical criticism who held my writing feet to the fire. The biggest surprise is how good he is as a straight-up editor. It's ironic that I like his red pen more than a few "professional" editors I've worked with. Perhaps all editors should be put through the mandatory rigor of grading students' papers for a few years, as well as writing their own papers for tough professors.Kevin Bader, writer